Joseph Fiennes

If you want to make idols accessible - which I think Shakespeare should be - then you have to bring a human touch, make it self-effacing and warm.

From the age of about five to twelve I was very bad, a hideous little terror who beat people up. I was a member of the Rough Gang - we went around and terrorized all the pupils in school.

I can only put myself in the process and try to learn through the process. Sometimes it will go well and sometimes it won't.

I may seem to have worn a lot of tights in films, but actually, those are just the films that have been most visible or worked best. I have worn jeans a lot, too, but those ones haven't tended to work so well.

Working backstage as a teenager made me realise there's not much glamour in this profession - just lots of hard work. That's a good thing to learn early on.

I think everything I do is my early work. I can't wait to get on to the later stuff.

When you wake up, and you see that America has pulled out of the climate deal in Paris, that sends huge messages about putting coal before the planet.

I guess, as an actor, you have to bring something personal to the character - you've got to identify and love one element of the character, or else you can't really inhabit and find ownership.